wORD OF THE DAY: DRIFFLE

DRIFFLE

NOUN
1. a slight shower of rain or snow; a drizzle; a short spell of stormy weather; a gale ...1824 Sc.
2. a scolding ...1866 Sc.
3. a quantity of work done with speed ...1866 Sc.
4. haste, speed ...1925 Sc.

 
VERB
1. to utter in driblets ...1593 obs.
2. to drink deeply ...c1645 obs.
3. to drizzle; to rain or snow fitfully or in sparse drops, as at the ‘tail’ of a shower ...1639 Sc.
4. to scold ...1898 Sc.
5. to drip, to cause to drop ...1906 Amer. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
possibly allied to dribble (vb.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1593 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Why, man, he is worth a thousand of these pidlinge and driblinge Confuters, that sitt all day buzzing vpon a blunt point, or two: and with much adoe drifle-out as many sentences in a weeke, as he will powre∣downe in an howre...."
From: Pierces Supererogation: Or, A New Prayse of the Old Asse
- Gabriel Harvey